Irene Rummelhoff News

Norway's Hammerfest liquefied natural gas plant has restarted LNG production following a fire almost two years ago, boosting the country's gas exports, operator Equinor said on Thursday.The company last week told Reuters the plant had completed repairs and was preparing to restart output. The plant had been offline since late September of 2020, and a restart was postponed several times while repairs were carried out."This is of great significance in a period when predictable and reliable supplies are highly important to many countries and customers…

Equinor must fix a series of rule breaches exposed by a fire at its Melkoeya liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Norway last year for the plant to reopen, the country's safety watchdog said on Thursday.The September 2020 blaze shut down production at the plant, also referred to as Hammerfest LNG, and Equinor has said it could take until October to be repaired."The serious breaches that we saw are related specifically to management and compliance to procedures ... and also to manning in the organization…

Norwegian energy company Equinor has announced its 2018 sales of natural gas totalled $26bn, an increase of 29% from 2017.Equinor sold a total of 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas worldwide in 2018. The company is the second-largest gas supplier to Europe, as well as the largest producer of natural gas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS)."As more countries prepare for the energy transition, Equinor sees strong market opportunities for gas and expects global demand to grow by around 10% towards 2030," Equinor said.Equinor is the largest producer of natural gas on the Norwegian continental shelf and the second-largest gas supplier to Europe. The company also has a significant gas portfolio outside Norway.

Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor, formerly Statoil, is acquiring the Danish energy trading company, Danske Commodities for EUR 400 million (USD 470 mln). "Equinor has reached agreement to buy 100% of the shares in Danish energy trading company Danske Commodities (DC) for EUR 400 million, with smaller contingent payments depending on DC’s performance over the next couple of years," said a press release from the company. This acquisition – of one of Europe’s largest short-term electricity traders – supports Equinor’s development towards becoming a broad energy company. DC is also active in short-term gas trading and provides energy market services. DC was founded in 2004 and is based in Aarhus, Denmark, with 284 employees.

The world's first offshore floating wind farm has started to deliver electricity to the Scottish grid, providing power to approximately 20,000 households. The 30MW Hywind Scotland wind farm, operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar 25 kilometers offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was officially opened today by First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. “This marks an exciting development for renewable energy in Scotland,” First Minister Sturgeon said. “The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy.

Just days after Deepwater Wind said its Block Island Wind Farm has begun delivering electricity into the New England region’s grid, Statoil reports that it has been declared the provisional winner of the U.S. government’s wind lease sale of 79,350 acres offshore New York. Statoil will now have the opportunity to explore the potential development of an offshore wind farm to provide New York City and Long Island with a significant, long-term source of renewable electricity. Statoil submitted a winning bid of $42,469,725 during the online offshore wind auction concluded by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

Statoil today enters the German offshore wind market, through a 50% acquisition of the Arkona offshore wind farm. Statoil and E.ON also announced the final investment decision on the 385 megawatt project. The estimated total investment for the project will be in excess of EUR 1.2 billion. The Arkona wind farm will provide renewable energy for up to 400,000 households in Germany, making it one of the largest ongoing offshore wind developments in Europe. “We are pleased to announce our decision to develop this significant offshore wind project together with E.ON. This investment is in line with our strategy to gradually complement our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions,” says Eldar Sætre, Statoil’s president and CEO.

Sweden's Vattenfall expects to be able to build offshore wind power projects, one of the most expensive sources of renewable energy, without subsidies by the middle of the next decade, a senior company official said on Thursday. The state-owned utility plans to boost its wind power portfolio in Europe to 4 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to four nuclear reactors, by 2020 from the current installed 1.8 GW, and further to 7 GW by 2025. "We should be able to build onshore wind power projects by 2020 without subsidy, and we also expect that we could build offshore wind power without subsidy by 2025, but that would depend on the projects," Michael Simmelsgaard, head of Vattenfall's strategic projects in wind, told a conference.

Statoil has made the final investment decision to build the world’s first floating wind farm: The Hywind pilot park offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The decision triggers investments of around NOK 2 billion, realizing a 60-70 percent cost reduction per MW from the Hywind demo project in Norway. Statoil will install a 30 MW wind turbine farm on floating structures at Buchan Deep, 25 kilometers offshore Peterhead, harnessing Scottish wind resources to provide renewable energy to the mainland. The wind farm will power around 20,000 households. Production start is expected in late 2017. “Our objective with the Hywind pilot park is to demonstrate the feasibility of future commercial, utility-scale floating wind farms.

Statoil delivered Adjusted earnings of NOK 22.4 billion and adjusted earnings after tax of NOK 7.2 billion in the second quarter. Statoil reported Net income in accordance with IFRS of NOK 10.1 billion, including gains from divestments. "In the second quarter, Statoil delivered encouraging operational performance with good production growth and high regularity, whilst continuing to reduce cost. Our financial results were characterised by gains from divestments and lower prices. Also in the second quarter, we report a close to neutral free cash flow after dividend and proceeds", says president and CEO of Statoil ASA, Eldar Sætre. Adjusted earnings were NOK 22.4 billion in the second quarter compared to NOK 32.3 billion in the same period in 2014.

Statoil appoints new chief financial officer (CFO), and launches business area for New Energy Solutions (NES). Three new executive vice presidents (EVPs) are appointed as members of the corporate executive committee (CEC). CFO Torgrim Reitan is appointed EVP for Development & Production USA (DPUSA) after Bill Maloney decided to not prolong his contract with Statoil. Hans Jakob Hegge is appointed new EVP and CFO. Hegge comes from the position as senior vice president for Operations North in Development & Production Norway. Irene Rummelhoff is appointed EVP for New Energy Solutions, and Jens Økland new EVP for Marketing, Midstream & Processing (MMP). Rummelhoff and Økland start in their new positions 1 June 2015. Reitan and Hegge will start in their new positions 1 August 2015.

Statoil has completed the extensive 2013-2014 exploration programme in the Barents Sea. This represents an all-time high exploration activity and 10% of all exploration wells drilled in the Barents Sea since its opening in 1980. “This is a unique exploration programme. A commitment of this size and complexity requires geological, technological and organisational muscle, and the data collected are important for the future understanding of the oil and gas potential in the Barents Sea,” says Irene Rummelhoff, senior vice president for exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Norwegian authorities have rejected an appeal by Greenpeace to stop Statoil from drilling the world's most northerly well on the Apollo prospect in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian oil company said on Friday. The company's announcement that it has been given approval to start drilling comes a day after Norwegian police removed seven Greenpeace protesters who had boarded the rig in an attempt to prevent it from reaching the Barents Sea and Bear Island, an uninhabited wildlife sanctuary that is home to rare species, including polar bears. “Greenpeace has once again performed an illegal action.

Statoil, together with PL532 partners, has made a gas discovery in the Kramsnø prospect in the Barents Sea. The exploration program around the Johan Castberg field has been vital in providing area knowledge, but so far not delivered expected oil volumes. In 2011-2012 Statoil made a breakthrough in the Barents Sea with two high impact oil discoveries Skrugard and Havis, proving a total of 400-600 million barrels of recoverable oil. Skrugard and Havis opened a new petroleum province in the Barents Sea and created a basis for the Johan Castberg field development project.

The LNG carrier Arctic Princess was named in Nagasaki, Japan, today. The ceremony was sponsored by Mrs. Irene Rummelhoff of Statoil representing the charterer, Snøhvit Sellers. The Artic Princess is the first LNG carrier that will be employed for carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the world's northernmost LNG development - Snøhvit. The Arctic Princess will be delivered in January 2006 and will be chartered to the Snøhvit Sellers for a period of 20 years. The building contract for Arctic Princess was entered into with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) in Japan in December 2001 and the vessel will be delivered on schedule and at the agreed cost.